I always share these things when they go out to season-ticket holders...

Dear Goofus,

Having recently returned from the Baseball Winter Meetings in Las Vegas, I want to take this opportunity to give you an update on the team and to again thank you for your dedication to the Giants. While we're only at the mid-point of the off season, the moves we have made to date will certainly help improve the team in key areas to better position us within our division. 

Our goal remains to build our team around solid, all-around position players and a strong starting rotation, supplementing them with experienced impact players. While we went into last season with a relatively unknown group of young players, this year we have a much clearer sense of which homegrown players will be able to compete at the major league level. 

Youngsters like Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum and closer Brian Wilson became All-Stars, while Matt Cain, Fred Lewis and Jonathan Sanchez each displayed flashes of brilliance. Additionally, rookies Pablo Sandoval, John Bowker, Emmanuel Burriss, Travis Ishikawa, Sergio Romo, Alex Hinshaw, Nate Schierholtz and Eugenio Velez all showed great promise. In total, we were able to take a look at a franchise-record 24 rookies in 2008, including 16 that made their major league debuts, and get them needed experience at the highest level. 

While many positive things were discovered last season, going into this off-season we pinpointed a couple of areas we needed to strengthen. The first was our set up relief, as we lost 17 games last year where we were either leading or tied after the 7th inning. The free agent signings of left-hander Jeremy Affeldt and right-hander Bob Howry add two veteran relievers with proven track records to help bridge the gap to Wilson.

The next thing we addressed was our run production. With the continued development of our young players, such as Lewis, Ishikawa and Sandoval, we will increase our run production from within. However, we also needed to add a solid bat at shortstop. We added four-time All-Star and career .290-hitter Edgar Renteria.

We will continue to look to upgrade our offense and explore options for a fifth starter. Lincecum, Cain, Zito and Sanchez look to be our top four, with Noah Lowry coming off an injury or California League Pitcher of the Year Kevin Pucetas penciled in as a possible fifth starter. We have also made inquiries to the agent for Randy Johnson, however it looks as if we are one of many teams with interest for the veteran left-hander.

Even though things were relatively quiet during last week's meetings, we did find out quite a bit about what other teams thought of our own players. This encourages us even further that we are on the right path in building a team that will have lasting success. Our minor league affiliates saw five of our seven clubs reach the post-season in 2008, while building an overall record of 434-330 (.568) which was second-best among the 30 MLB organizations. 

Recent publications have also recognized our strong efforts over the last few years in building our farm system, with MLB.com and Baseball America ranking some of our players such as Minor League Pitcher of the Year Madison Bumgarner, Silver Spikes winner Buster Posey, Cal League All-Star Tim Alderson and 18-year-old phenom Angel Villalona among the top 60 prospects in all of minor league baseball. We will continue to give our young players a chance to win jobs at the major league level and to learn the Giants Way of playing baseball. 

With Spring Training just around the corner, we look forward to the new year playing the game with passion and building a contending team that we will all be proud of for many seasons to come. 

Thank you again for your continued support and I want to wish you and your family happy holidays and best wishes for the coming year.


Sincerely,


Brian R. Sabean
Senior Vice President and General Manager